Tag Archives: America

It Wasn’t the Place, But This Isn’t Normal

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An online forum devoted to a well-known musician isn’t usually the place to discuss politics. But this is not a normal time, even on the Brian Wilson forum. So when a nice person from Canada referred to the “brouhaha” surrounding our election. I was moved to respond (and thereby generate this post for WOCS).

November 14th

Brouhaha? As in “a noisy and overexcited reaction or response to something”? I can’t agree about the “overexcited” aspect.

In fact, I think Kramer had a good reaction to our election in this little clip:

November 14th again

I prefer “titanic struggle between good and evil” or “battle of world historical proportions”. Seriously. I would vote for any qualified Republican without hesitation in order to avoid this disaster. 

PS — I guess you can call me names if you want, but I remember your comment about “two days of pointing fingers, etc” in the veterans remembrance thread you started. “Brouhaha” suggests the same attitude. I can understand that people who don’t live in the US and won’t be immediately affected may think we’re making too much of him winning last week and of course this is Brian’s site. But people’s lives do come into play here every so often. This is deadly serious business for millions of people. Because this person is not just another politician to mock or disparage. He is a true danger to us and to the world. And part of the problem is that people, including the media, have normalized him all along and are continuing to do so, and the only way to stop that from happening is to point it out when it happens, however impolite or pedantic that seems.

November 15th

Sorry that I misinterpreted what your wrote and reacted so strongly. You can probably tell I’m among the population that’s pretty much freaking out. It’s easily the worst thing that’s happened to America since 9/11, and probably worse than that, given the possible consequences. It truly is a nightmare. Hell, we lived through Nixon, Reagan and two Bush’s. This is way worse. Either the Electoral College has to stop him or he has to be impeached as soon as possible.

So I’m calling my Republican Congressman to remind him (as if he needed reminding) that we shouldn’t have a white supremacist, anti-semitic, misogynist, racist, conspiracy theorist named S. Bannon, who claims he’s a “Leninist” who wants to bring the whole system down, as the President’s “chief strategist”.

And that the new President should not give top security clearance to three of his children and his son-in-law so they can continue making money for the President’s company with the added benefit of information from the CIA and NSA, in by far the biggest conflict of interest and invitation to corruption we’ve ever seen.

November 16th

I was on my way to the World Trade Center that morning. I stood on the street and watched the buildings burn. I walked through the stinking air in the days afterward. It’s a hard truth that the sudden tragic murder of 3,000 innocent people may pale in comparison to what a vengeful, narcissistic thug can unleash on the world.

Link to “Trump Could Face a Nuclear Decision Soon” 

In fact, assuming we avoid the use of nuclear weapons when he is provoked one night and wants to demonstrate his “toughness”, a President who endorses the so-called “conservative” agenda will cause more than 3,000 innocent people to die by doing things like taking away their health insurance and gutting environmental regulations.

Links to  “Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others” and

“Infant mortality rates in the US seem to go up during a Republican presidency and down during a Democratic presidency” 

Even poor management of the economy will worsen the lives of millions of middle-class and working-class white people who will be even more disappointed and disheartened when the man who said he is the only who can fix their problems (e.g. by rebuilding the coal industry) fails to do so. That will lead to more dysfunction and more deaths.

Link to “Rising deaths among white middle-aged Americans could exceed Aids toll in US”

And one more thing

A former Republican official who rejected T—p because he’s dangerously unqualified writes:

 “I told conservatives to work for Trump. One talk with his team changed my mind”

The Electoral College Can and Must Deliver Us From Evil

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It’s reported that our Mussolini in waiting wants top secret security clearance for three of his children and his son-in-law, none of whom will be government employees as federal law requires. Instead, they will conduct the family business while their father conducts our business. How long will it be before T—p creates a palace guard so he can more easily ignore the rulings of judges trying to rein him in? 

Here’s a modest proposal:

Whatever you’re doing that isn’t required by the necessities of life, stop doing it and start publicizing the idea that the Electoral College can and must stop T—p from becoming President. The Electoral College got us into this mess (Hillary is winning by almost 700,000 votes at last count) and the Electoral College can get us out! That’s what the U.S. Constitution says.

If 40 or so Republican electors vote for a different Republican, the election goes to the House of Representatives and they can dump this monster. Will they? I hope so, because it’s the only realistic chance we have avoid imminent disaster.

The more we publicize the Electoral College option, the more people talk about it, post about it, contact Republican politicians about it, convince everyone they know about it, the more likely it will be that the Electoral College will deliver us from evil on December 19th.

The Republicans have released a monster on the world. Now they have to shut him down. 

The Electoral College Needs To Save Us From T—p

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More than 4 million people have signed a petition at Change.org urging members of the Electoral College to elect Hillary Clinton as President on December 19th. I signed it myself. 

If roughly 40 Republican electors join with the 230 or so Democratic electors in voting for Clinton, she will become our next President.

Unfortunately, since most of the electors who vote next month are Republicans, it is highly doubtful that even 40 of them would agree to give the Presidency to a Democrat, especially a Democrat they hate as much as they (foolishly) hate Hillary Clinton.

Yet most of America understands that T—p is dangerously unqualified to be President. Amazingly, that includes millions of Republicans who voted for him last week.

On December 19th, the members of the Electoral College that we chose last week (when many of us believed we were directly voting for the candidates) will cast their ballots in their respective state capitals and in the District of Columbia.

If the electors vote the way their respective states voted, Mr. Trump will become President on January 21st. However, the electors can vote for someone else if they choose. Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted – they would pay a small fine – which concerned Americans and citizens of the world would be glad to pay for them!

There are two realistic options. The first is that enough Republican electors will vote for someone other than T—p to throw the election into the House of Representatives. The House has decided three Presidential elections before (in 1801, 1825 and 1877). Since the Republicans control the House, they would undoubtedly select a Republican as President. Would they choose someone other than T—p? I sure hope so.

Of course, there is at least one petition at Change.org demanding that the electors choose a Republican other than T—p. (I’ve signed that one too.) So far, at least two electors are endorsing this idea, as described here.

Another possibility (although certainly less likely) is that at least 40 or so Republican electors will join with the 230 or so Democratic electors to elect a compromise or unity ticket. For example, another petition urges the Electoral College to elect the Republican Governor of Ohio, John Kasich, as President and the Democratic Senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine, as Vice President.

Governor Kasich sought the Republican nomination for President and Senator Kaine was chosen as the Democratic candidate for Vice President. Both have a long record of public service and are qualified to lead the Executive Branch of our government. Neither of them are extreme ideologues (although Kasich is sufficiently “conservative” to make Democrats frequently unhappy). 

Electing Kasich as President would acknowledge the fact that T—p won more states. Electing Kaine as Vice President would acknowledge the fact that Clinton got many more votes. As a Democrat, I’d prefer President Clinton or President Kaine, but any qualified Republican would be better than T—p.

If the Electoral College rejected T—p, millions of Americans would protest that the election was being stolen. But you can’t steal an election by obeying the Constitution. The men who wrote the Constitution feared the election of a dangerous or unqualified candidate. They trusted the electors from the various states to save the day if America faced an electoral crisis. That’s exactly what we face today.

Understanding T—p’s “Mind”

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Brian Leiter is a professor of philosophy and law at the University of Chicago. He has a blog that’s mainly for philosophers but often gets into politics. I think his take on T—p’s “mind” is worth reading. 

Leiter first suggests that T—p should be understood as a narcissist, not a sociopath (although I bet there’s an applicable diagnosis of narcissism with sociopathic tendencies). But the best part of Leiter’s post is when he describes T—p’s “Mafia mentality” that’s “familiar to any New Yorker who has paid attention”.  

By the way, Hillary Clinton is now leading T—p by roughly 600,000 votes or 1% of the votes cast. As someone remarked today: “Only in America does the political party that just got the most votes wonder what they have to do to win elections”.

And one more thing: Given that T—p is known for plastering his name everywhere, I wonder how he’d feel if we all used “T—p” instead? In every news article, in every TV graphic, on every computer screen, in every email. It would be a childish thing to do, of course. Or maybe not. Perhaps it would simply be disrespectful. That would be fitting. I began doing it yesterday and it’s definitely more pleasant than the alternative. Plus, assuming we make it that far, it could end up erasing his name from the history books. That’s a nice thought in itself.

Professor Leiter’s interesting post is here.

PS — And we could say “TP” in conversation. Using those two letters would be wonderfully evocative of what T—P and his supporters have done to America and the rest of the world.

This Week of All Weeks, Jane Addams Is Worth Thinking About

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Jane Addams (1860-1931) isn’t famous these days. At one time, however, she was the most-admired woman in America and well-known throughout the world.

Wikipedia lists her occupation as “social and political activist, author and lecturer, community organizer, public intellectual”. Her tombstone in Cedarville, Illinois, describes her as a “humanitarian, feminist, social worker, reformer, educator, author, publicist, founder of Hull House, President [of the] Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom”. It also notes that she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Addams fought for women’s suffrage and is considered the founder of the social work profession in the United States. Sociologists view her as a social theorist. Philosophers place her in the school of philosophy known as Pragmatism.  At her death, some compared Jane Addams, who never sought political office, to her hero, Abraham Lincoln.

As this horrible week comes to a close, it may help us to consider Jane Addams as an example of, in Lincoln’s words, “the better angels of our nature”.

Today, Addams is best known as the principal founder of Hull House, the first “settlement house” in the United States. It opened its doors in Chicago in 1889 and continued to operate until 2012. Its initial goal was to help recent immigrants find their place in American society, because Addams’s purpose in life was to convert her progressive ideas into action.

Here is a passage from Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy by Jane Bethke Elshtain:

The statement of purpose in Hull-House’s charter read: “To provide a center for a higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago”; but this fails to capture the spirit and the manifold activities of Hull-House. Addams refined this statement over the years. It was a “place for enthusiasms”; it helped “give form to social life”; it offered “the warm welcome of an inn”; it was a place for mutual interpretation of the the social classes one to another; it responded to ethical demands and shared fellowship; it was a place for the life of the mind….

At the conclusion of her second autobiographical volume, The Second Twenty Years at Hull-House, Addams takes another stab at it: “It was the function of settlements to bring into the circle of knowledge and fuller life, men and women who might otherwise be left outside” [ p. 92].

The work of Hull House “gained expression in day nurseries, kindergarten classes, playgrounds, boys’ and girls’ clubs, a cooperative boardinghouse, theater workshops, music schools, language classes, reading groups, handicraft centers and eventually a Labor Museum” [p. 93].

In the early days, after Addams and a Hull House resident named Julia Lathrop came to the aid of a young woman, all alone, giving birth in a nearby tenement, Addams exclaimed:

“This doing things that we don’t know how to do is going too far. Why did we let ourselves be rushed into midwifery?” To which [Lathrop] replied: “If we have to begin to hew down to the line of our ignorance, for goodness’ sake don’t let us begin at the humanitarian end. To refuse to respond to a poor girl in the throes of childbirth would be a disgrace to us forevermore. If Hull-House does not have its roots in human kindness, it is no good at all” [p. 93].

We might say the same thing about the United States of America during the months and years ahead.